9 comments:

I have never been able to stay up late enough for THE TONIGHT SHOW. A whole phenomena I missed.It must have been great in the days when it just wasn't actors pushing their movies. When conversations really took place.

Yes, it was very different in those days. When THE TONIGHT SHOW was still an hour and a half, the last fifteen minutes was sometimes called "the writer's spot", because Johnny would have various authors on. Once the show was cut to an hour, those spots pretty much disappeared. I guess Craig Ferguson is the only late-night host on broadcast who still has authors on occasionally. I've seen Larry Block on his show a number of times, and also Ken Bruen.

No, this is a different episode, Cap'n. Johnny leaves the set of The Tonight Show and goes across the hall to the studio where they're taping an episode of Rickles' sitcom CPO SHARKEY to confront Rickles over the cigarette box he broke the night before when he was guest-hosting. Rickles is taken completely off-guard and is flabbergasted and speechless at first, which is what makes it so funny.